first faint and still, almost
if it were a whisper,
a faint and tiny whisper,
a noise, white noise, that broke
across my left ear, first
faint and still. It grew.
It lengthened on the waves,
rising ever rising,
a wall of rising sound,
a blast that started faint
and still; then swelled, a well
of wild, deep, and strong
soft white lace that faded
faint and still. It touched me,
swiftly rolling over,
tumbling over, humbling
blue peaked waves that lapped
and curled into my craft,
sheets of clean white linen
breaking from their cobalt
blue to beat upon my bow,
this dingy dinghy brain,
this wrinkled raft of forehead,
these loosely-knotted lines
of wood, my storm-tossed brow,
a wobbly wooden wafer,
bobbing on the blue waves,
in this rich white creamy fog
of noise that rolls and tumbles.
II.
I hear it once again.
I hear it bowl toward
me, first faint and still,
as if it were a whisper,
rising ever rising,
swiftly rolling over,
thunder wild, deep, and loud.
Mild as milk, muffed as wool,
spry as sheets, cold as snow,
loud as clouds, dry as light,
soft and deep as morning flight,
white as sun-bright-fog-white.
I hear it faint and still,
I hear it rise and swell,
I hear it hum and hale,
it tickles my tummy,
it wicks my earholes,
a thrum, a mild whale.
Deathly faint, I hear it;
I hear its urgent swell.
I’m haunted by these lap-
dog waves, this beastly smog,
this fog, a forlorn horn.
It’s noise unspools like thunder,
dividing all asunder.
And when I turn my head,
it claps my left ear; hurls
across my right. It moves
across my watery tomb,
this blasted silent white.
***
Riley H. Welcker is wiry, bald, and bold. Welckler
has have a novel as well as many
short stories, essays, and poems bulging from my briefcase. Welcker has a B.S.
in Business, a B.A. in English, and is currently an M.F.A. creative writing student at the
University of Texas at El Paso. His nonfiction essay “Scaling the Ranks” has
been published by the Oklahoma Review, and his essay “An Analysis of John Donne: A Poet of Death” has been
accepted for publication by The Montreal Review.
